As usual, there’s a lot of other stuff in the update. Some of it is interesting, like Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter for the PSP. Some of it is mindless, like Qore (Seriously, does anyone actually watch that?).

You can also choose the demo for EA Sports’ NCAA Football 10, as well as the usual weekly song downloads for Rock Band and Guitar Hero. Rock Band gets Spinal Tap this week, something guaranteed to make people my age smile with nostalgia.

If you want to see a full list of what’s available this week, it’s available after the break.

PS3 Content:

• Metal Gear Solid PS1 game ($9.99)
• Qore yearly subscription ($24.99)
• Qore episode 13 ($2.99)
• NCAA Football 10 demo (free)

Add-on Content:

• MotorStorm Pacific Rift Jester Signature Livery pack (free)
• 3x Cross Edge packs (free)
• Guitar Hero World Tour DLC
• Rock Band DLC

Guitar Hero World Tour DLC

• Guitar Hero On Tour: Modern Hits Theme – S.U.P.R.A.H.U.M.A.N (free)

Ben Harper and Relentless7 Track Pack ($5.49)

• Fly One Time by Ben Harper and Relentless7 ($1.99)
• Number With No Name by Ben Harper and Relentless7 ($1.99)
• Shimmer & Shine by Ben Harper and Relentless7 ($1.99)

Rock Band DLC

Spinal Tap Pack 1 ($6.99)

• Back From the Dead – Spinal Tap ($1.99)
• Rock ‘n’ Roll Nightmare – Spinal Tap ($1.99)
• Saucy Jack – Spinal Tap ($1.99)
• Warmer Than Hell – Spinal Tap ($1.99)

Evanescence Pack 1 ($5.49)

• Bring Me to Life – Evanescence ($1.99)
• Call Me When You’re Sober – Evanescence ($1.99)
• Weight of the World – Evanescence ($1.99)

Video

• Mini Ninjas E3 trailer

Themes

• American Pride theme ($1.49)
• Jungle Jane theme ($1.99)
• Warrior Girls theme ($1.49)
• Azmodeus Dark Angels theme 3 ($1.49)
• 4th of July Pinups theme ($1.49)

PSP Content

• Metal Gear Solid PS1 game ($9.99)
• Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 full game ($19.99)
• American Pride theme ($1.49)
• Jungle Jane theme ($1.49)
• Warrior Girls theme ($1.49)
• Azmodeus Dark Angels theme 3 ($0.99)
• 4th of July Pinups theme ($0.99)

In addition, the download allows players to use Old Snake as a unique character and the Octo-cam suit as a weapon. In a twist, Old Snake will not become completely invisible when using the suit, but will automatically blend with the environment. The latest download will also include an Auto Matching Reward mode in which the winner of the match wins more reward points than normal. When playing an individual match in this mode, only the winner receives the reward points while in a team match, the team member ranked first will win the reward points.

With E3 2009 in full swing Gaming Today is swimming in trailers for so many awesome games, you’ll forget how slow the first five months of 2009 were. I’ll try to fire off as many as I can in short bursts. Enjoy the Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker E3 trailer after the break.

Kojima promises he’ll do his best to use the PSP to it’s full extent to make this a riveting edition to the Metal Gear Solid storyline. It looks good so far and obviously his sense of humor is quite intact. Gotta love those boxing moves.

Gamers can expect to see Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker on the shelves in 2010.

As Ron pointed out the other day, a new splash screen over at Kojima Productions’ website featured a grassy field with distant lightning pulsing every once in a while to briefly reveal an image of a ‘5′ or ‘S’.

That countdown has ended, and we are now being teased with yet another countdown. As of this writing, the new countdown reads 102 hours remaining (just over 4 days).

Additionally, a random sequence of four flashing digits or letters are now being pulsed in the same fashion as before. My crude transcription skills read them out to be (in no particular order): ‘E3e5′

While this doesn’t exactly help clarify things, it sure does add fuel to the already blazing speculation fire. The letters ‘E3′ would obviously mean reference to the upcoming Electronic Entertainment Expo taking place June 2nd through the 4th.

So what do the other two letters mean? The first thing that came in my mind was ‘Se’ = ‘Snake Eater’. A port? A sequel to the prequel? A prequel to the prequel? Argh!

Or could it just simply mean ‘e5′ = ‘episode 5′? Double Argh!

Damn you, Kojima! *shakes fist* Damn youuuu!

Expect more countdowns, teasing, and overall sneakiness until our collective heads explode.

Over at the Konami website, there’s a shiny new countdown page (seen in the screenshot above). There’s no word on exactly what it’s a teaser for just yet, but if you visit the site, you’ll see it’s located in the Kojima Productions directory of the Konami site.

Each time the lightning flashes in the Flash driven countdown page, it reveals the outline of the number five. Whether this refers to Metal Gear Solid 5, or some other title, we’ll just have to wait and see. Maybe E3 will bring all the answers we seek.

Let’s just hope that if it is MGS5, it’s not featuring Raiden. I just don’t think I could take that.

Yesterday, Jonathan let you all in on the weird and not very secretly coded message plastered across a teaser site for Metal Gear Solid. The last code is mostly likely the power button for a PC–at least that is what the symbol on my power button looks like, but it also looks like the one for the Xbox 360. Then again, if you looks at the codes closely, you would also see other gaming symbols that looks very familiar to you. Therefore, one might think that the “i” is for the Wii, and the “!” is for the Xbox 360 and the last one is for the PC.  Yet, the Wii most likely would not be able to handle an exact port of Metal Gear Solid 4, therefore I personally think this had to do with the Xbox 360 and PC only.

So, if my deductive reasoning (and upon further investigation-most of the internet) is correct, MGS4 will no longer be a PS3 exclusive in the near future. That, or all the old Metal Gear Solid games will be heading to other formats–but it is best not to think on this too hard and instead focus on the obvious.

All of the speculation from yesterday is getting even more heightened today, with people chatting on all sorts of forums, but if you look back on the actual beginnings of these rumors, the teaser site just makes perfect sense.

First off, back in January of this year, Steve told you all about a site claiming to have spoken to an “anonymous Konami rep” who stated that an Xbox 360 version of MGS4 would be heading to the console in 2009. Then, back in October, Kotaku reported that a Japanese site spoke to a Konami rep who said that the company was currently looking into a port for the Xbox 360, only to have that information changed to “we are going multiplatform from here on out”.  Then, again in October, John Schapper (the head of Xbox Live) told MCV that he would love to see MGS4 come to the Xbox 360 and it could handle it very well despite Kojima telling Eurogamer it would not work because “MGS4 was optimized for the PS3 [and] it is probably not possible”.

Kojima has stated he wishes he had just released the Metal Gear games for the PC only so that the “other” console questions would have never plagued him. Therefore, it is quite possible that the PC is the system getting the MGS4 instead of the Xbox 360. The thought of the Wii getting the game, like I mentioned above, is just not really feasible unless they redid the game completely for the console.

Either way, Konami is doing a great job of getting people talking and creating even more hype for their game, which in the long run is great for sales. If MGS4 does indeed go cross platform, it will be another nail in the coffin for exclusivity on gaming consoles. Over the past two years, we have seen a major reduction in exclusive “hot” titles. Sony is doing their best with games like Uncharted, LittleBigPlanet, Heavenly Sword and the upcoming God of War III, and Microsoft itself has always done well with titles like Fable 1 and 2, the Halo series and both Gears of War games. Nintendo always has its exclusives too, but with series like Final Fantasy going multiplatform and the possibility of the Metal Gear series doing the same, those days may soon be over with. At least the PC still has exclusives, but in the long run, it is always best for gamers to have as many options as possible–therefore, MGS4 going multiplatform would be a great thing indeed.

Hopefully all of the arguing, denials, hype, sepculation and teasing will soon be over, but I personally would not look for Konami to announce anything until the beginning of next year, the year that the Xbox 360 port is reportedly suppose to arrive. Just keep an open mind, because not only could it be a PC announcemnt, it coule be something entirely different as well—and you have to admit that Konami is very adept at running the hype machine.

Nothing bugs me more than when developers tease us with what their doing by giving us some cryptic message or visual that only just fuels the internet rumor mill. Right now, the net seems to be buzzing about this mysterious teaser site that Konami has put up. It really does nothing but flash the Konami logo and the strange message above over and over, but that’s already enough to get the speculators going. Most people believe this indicates that the Metal Gear franchise will be crossing over to the Xbox 360 in the near future, but we’ll really have to wait until Konami says something before we know for sure. Unfortunately, with the way they tend to keep a lid on the details of their Metal Gear games, I wouldn’t expect to hear any concrete news for awhile.

Remember back in June when when all those Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots bundles for the PS3 went on sale? Did you miss out on your chance to get one? Well, Walmart has your back because they are selling the Limited Edition Kojima Silver MSG4 40GB PS3 Bundles for $399.99–but you may want to check for availability before you head down to you nearest boxmart.

You can, however order one online and if you want to save $19.94 on shipping, you can have it delivered to your nearest Walmart store for pick-up. Kind of like Circuit City but without all the lies.

Now that we know these bundles are still in demand after all these months, let us hope that those of us out there who still want the 80GB model will be shown some love as well relatively soon.

(Thanks VG247)

Available to the highest bidder on eBay right now is a modded 60GB PlayStation 3 system that has been completely reworked to the beauty you see above which, in addition to the lovely paint job, sports 15 white LEDs to light up the artwork, a modded Nyko PS3 controller with red backlit buttons, and the signatures of both series mastermind Hideo Kojima and Metal Gear Solid 4 voice actor Yumi Kikuchi.

In addition to the system itself, you’ll be getting a handful of other Metal Gear goodies, including launch day dog tags, a GA-KO alarm clock, custom embroidered Otacon patches, and other rare items.

15% of the final price will be going to Penny Arcade’s Child’s Play charity, so you won’t have to feel too terribly guilty about bidding. Of course, you will need to have a fair amount of cash handy to bid — with just under seven hours to go, the highest bid is currently $17,200. That’s a pretty penny (1,720,000 pretty pennies, to be exact), but hey — at least shipping is free.

This has got to be one of the most inventive ads for a video game I’ve seen in awhile. At first, I thought this was simply one helluva fan creation, but it turns out to actually be an ad for Metal Gear Ac!d Mobile. It’s kind of strange that they don’t show any actual gameplay footage here, but watching little fingers kill each other is entertaining all by itself. Finally we get an answer to the age-old question: “Can thumb wrestling bloom on the battlefield?”

“We will keep on making games for consoles and the graphics and sound quality will get better and better,” he said. “But I think no matter how much we improve the quality, there is only so much we can hear or see.

“The next level will be when we start improving the backgrounds, the things you don’t instantly see but enhance the experience. For example, there are leaves in the background and when you water them they grow. Instead of the backgrounds being pre-programmed, they actually respond to what the player does.

“This is not possible right now but maybe in the future it will be, and that is when we will have entered the next era of gaming,” he added.

I have to agree with Kojima on this one. MMOs are a great example of this. You complete a quest and save the world only to have the whole scenario reset within 15 minutes. Characters have no real and lasting impact on video game settings. It can be very frustrating at times. I look forward to the time when my character’s actions help to shape the world around it.

via CVG

There are a few other easy-to-predict things in the top ten, such as Guitar Hero On Tour selling quite a few copies, as did Wii Fit and Wii Play. Battlefield: Bad Company (on 360) and Ninja Gaiden 2 both had strong sales, as did Mario Kart Wii.

But the major surprise — aside from GTA IV’s disappearance — is just how well Lego Indiana Jones sold. With the new movie being released, it was assured a good number of sales, but the Wii, PS2 and DS versions of the game combined for 822,600 copies sold, or in other words, straight cash money.

Kris Pigna over at 1UP made a good point regarding On Tour, suggesting that the game’s sales may have been much higher if the DS bundles were included in the figures. It’s worth keeping in mind, but I’m sure Activision is happy with selling 400k copies of a game that will likely have legs.

June 2008 Software Sales

1. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (PS3) — 774,600 (Roughly 1 million including bundles)
2. Guitar Hero On Tour (DS) — 422,300
3. Ninja Gaiden II (Xbox 360) — 372,700
4. Wii Fit (Wii) — 372,700
5. Wii Play (Wii) – 359,100
6. Battlefield: Bad Company (Xbox 360) — 346,800
7. Mario Kart Wii (Wii) — 322,400
8. LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventure (Wii) — 294,500
9. LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventure (DS) — 267,800
10. LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventure (PS2) — 260,300

We knew about this ahead of time, but the release of the NPD figures for June make it slightly more tangible for everyone to see: Nintendo has taken the console lead in the United States, with the Wii outselling the Xbox 360 in June 666,700 units to 219,800. Now that it’s done that, I think it can be said that it’s now officially legal to punch anyone in the face that suggests the Wii is just a fad.

Sales for the PlayStation 3 were up almost 100% from May, selling a total of 405,500 units — no doubt thanks to the release of Metal Gear Solid 4. That’s almost twice the 360’s total, which is pretty impressive after only outselling the 360 by about 22,000 units in May.

Portable systems had pretty nice months, too. The PSP rebounded nicely with a solid 337,400 units, and the DS went absolutely crazy, selling 783,000. Graduation presents, perhaps?

June 2008 Hardware Sales (May numbers in parentheses)

• Nintendo DS – 783,000 (452,600)
• Wii – 666,700 (675,100)
• PlayStation 3 – 405,500 (208,700)
• PlayStation Portable – 337,4000 (182,300)
• Xbox 360 – 219,800 (186,600)
• PlayStation 2 – 188,800 (132,700)

It has been one crazy week, and the craziest thing happening at home base while Jonathan and Shawn were in LA was the amount of assets we received in our inboxes on a daily basis. I have decided to post the lonely screens and trailers that did not get their very own post into one large post full of links. There’s just is not enough time to post them all, so this is the best way I know how.

While this is not a comprehensive list of what was not covered, it is close. There are more screens floating around out there that we have yet to get, but if or when we do, we will do our best to wow you with them.

Below you will find a list of games from A-N and a link to the trailer or screens for it. Be sure to look over the list carefully, because something you are interested in may be included. I have highlighted ones that may be of special interest.

Games O – Z are posted after the jump

50 Cent: Blood on the Sand Screens
Active Life Outdoor Challenge Trailer
Afro Samurai Screens
Age of Booty Screens
Age of Booty Trailer
AWAY Shuffle Dragon Screens
Babysitting Mania Screens
Bangai-O Spirits Screens
Bangai-O-Spirits Trailer
Battlestations Pacific Screens
Bionic Commando Screens
Bionic Commando Trailer
BioShock PS3 Screens
Borderlands Presentation Trailer
Borderlands Screens
BUZZ! Master Quiz Trailer
Champions Online B-Roll Trailer
Champions Online Screens
Chrono Trigger DS Screens
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 Trailer
Cooking Mama World Kitchen Screens
Dark Void Screens
Dark Void Trailer
Destroy All Humans: Path of the Furon Trailer
Digimon Championship Trailer
Digimon World Championship Screens
Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen Screens
Dungeon Hero Screens
Elebits: The Adventures of Kai and Zero Screens
Empire: Total War Screens
Eternal Sonata PS3 Screens
Eternal Sonata PS3 Trailer
Final Fantasy IV DS Screens
Flock! Screens
Flock! Trailer
Gran Turismo 5: Prolouge Trailer
Heavy Duty Screens
I Am Alive Trailer (This looks rather interesting)
I Heart Geeks Screens
Infinite Space Screens
Karaoke Revolution Presents: American Idol Enc. 2 Screens
Kill Zone 2 Trailer
King’s Bounty: The Legend Trailer
LEGO Batman: The Video Game B-Footage Trailer
LEGO Batman: The Videogame Screens
Little King’s Story Screens
Luminous Arc 2 Teaser Trailer
Marker Man Adventures Screens
Marvel Ultimate Alliance II: Fusion Trailer
Mega Man 9 Screens
Mercenaries 2: World in Flames Trailer
Metal Gear Online Screens
Monster Lab Screens
Monster Madness: Grave Danger Screens
MySims Kingdom Screens
N+ Screens
N+ Trailer
Naruto: Clash of Ninja Revolution 2 Screens
Naruto: Ultimate Ninja STORM Screens
Naruto: Ultimate Ninja STORM Trailer
National Geographic Panda Screens
Neopets Puzzle Adventure Screens
NHL SK9 Screens

Onechanbara: Bikini Zombie Slayers Screens
Our House Screens
Project Origin Demo Trailer
Project Origin Screens
Pure Trailer
Raving Rabbids TV Party Trailer
Rhythm Heaven Screens
Rhythm Heaven Trailer
Samba De Amigo Screens
Samba De Amigo Trailer
Scene It? Box Office Smash Screens
Shaun White Snowboarding Screens
Shaun White Snowboarding Trailer
Sid Meier’s Civilization IV: Colonization Screens
Singularity Trailer
SOCOM: Confrontation Trailer
Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood Screens
Sonic Unleashed Screens
Space Siege Screens
Spectral Force 3 Screens
Spectrobes: Beyond the Portals Trailer
Spider-Man: Web of Shadows Trailer
Spore Trailer
Star Ocean 2: Second Evolution Screens
Star Ocean: First Departure Screens
Star Wars: The Clone Wars Trailer
Stromrise Screens
Tales of Vesperia Trailer
Tales of Vesperia Screens
The Sims 2: Apartment Pets Screens
The Sims 3 Trailer
UFC 2009 Undisputed Trailer
Valkyria Chronicles Screens
We Cheer Screens
Wonderland Amusement Park Screens
WWE Legends of WrestleMania Screens
WWE Legends of WrestleMania Trailer
WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2009 Screens
X-Blades Screens
Yakuza 2 Screens
Zoo Hospital Screens

Not content with allowing only one player to be stealthy at a time, Konami has an update for Metal Gear Online that makes two significant additions. The first is a new mode, “Team Sneaking,” which is simply a team variant of the already existing “Sneaking” mode, where one team is invisible and has to infiltrate the enemy’s base and destroy something. But, if the team is spotted, they will become visible until a timer runs down, similar to the way the single-player MGS games work.

The other noteworthy new feature is an option for hosts to enable: headshots only. It’s self-explanatory enough, with the one exception of the game penalizing you for any kills you make that don’t come as a result of headshots. That should make for an interesting twist if precision aiming is your thing.

This new update is now available for free. If you happen to try it out, come back and let us know what you think.

via Opposable Thumbs

A new patch for Metal Gear Online hit PS3s yesterday that added a few interesting new features to the game. Most noticeable is a new mode called “Team Sneaking,” which is a variation of the previous “Sneaking” mode. Rather than have just one person have Snake’s abilities, a whole team can use stealth tactics, while the other tries to eliminate them. There’s also an option available now for hosts called “Headshots Only.” With this option, damage and points will only register if you land a headshot. In fact, if you hit an opponents body, you’ll actually lose points as a result. This should add some extra variety to the online matches. Really though, I’d like to see some more maps and a better party system.

Via Ars Technica

The File-N-Forget Podcast returns this week as we ramp up for our upcoming E3 coverage. With Metal Gear Solid 4 now established in the market and fans going gaga over it, Ron and Shawn give their quick impressions of it along with Battlefield: Bad Company and Alone in the Dark.

Bigger questions loom however as we discuss the state of E3 and what we think might happen in years to come.

There are also Rants & Raves to make the fanboys happy.

This weeks show is available by direct download here.

As always, you can get past episodes from our podcast page at http://podcast.filefront.com, and you can send your comments, questions, suggestions, or snarky comments to podcast@filefront.com.

File-N-Forget is also available on the iTunes Music Store.

I’ve been saying it for over a year now: “The day Metal Gear Solid 4 comes out is the day I buy a PS3.” So on Thursday, June 12th, that’s exactly what I did. I even drove an hour to a Wal-Mart in a small town at 6 AM to make sure I could secure the special system bundle. Being a huge fan of the series, I wanted to savor the experience, so I waited until the weekend to start playing, when I could really devote my time to the game. In the meantime, I perused reviews praising the game for its brilliant gameplay and for fixing problems that had plagued the series from the beginning. Naturally, I was even more excited to begin playing. So imagine my dissapointment when I actually popped in the disc and found it to be more movie than game.

It’s easy to see why Konami didn’t want reviewers to discuss the length of the game’s cut scenes, because they take up more than half of the full play time. You thought the 45-minute cinematic near the end of MGS2 was stretching things a bit? Well Hideo Kojima was just getting warmed up. I finished the whole game in about 20 hours, and I’d estimate — since I didn’t have a stop watch handy — that most of that time was spent with the controller resting in my lap, unused. Hell, even if my estimation is wrong, it certainly felt that way by the game’s end. Rumors were flying around before the game’s release that there was at least one cut scene that approached 90 minutes in length. Konami and even other reviewers were quick to deny this, and, technically, they were telling the truth. If you put a load screen or something up every half hour, then I guess you could say no single cut scene is that long. But the point is there are looooooong stretches of time where you don’t need to touch the controller at all; several are over an hour. Sure, sometimes you’re given the option to press a button to expose and alternate viewpoint of flashback, but this is about as thrilling as pressing the “Alternate Angle” button on the DVD remote.

You may be thinking, “But I saw the trailers before, and the cut scenes looked awesome!” Well yes, there are several action-packed cut scenes that are highly entertaining to watch. Unfortunately though, most of the cut scenes are much more mundane. You’ll get a chance to hear every character’s take on war (spoiler: it’s bad), their dreams, their past, and *ugh* their inner turmoil. You wanted explanations on some things from past games? Well, they explain the CRAP out of them. You’ll find out what happened to almost every single character that ever appeared in the series from the 1960’s to the present. Remember that one character from the original Metal Gear Solid that had almost no impact on the story at all? Don’t worry, you’ll find out exactly what they’ve been up to since. And then they throw out new twists and explain the crap out of them too. Characters are literally introduced, wax poetic about the harshness of war, and then disappear forever.

But you can’t skip them, because every so often, they’ll throw in a plot twist just to shake things up. The problem is, there’s so many of them that they get less and less dramatic as the story goes on. Besides that, half of these are revealed partway through some characters over-elaborate explanations of some conflict, technology, conspiracy, etc. After awhile, I started listening for some dramatic music just to cue me on when something important was happening.

With this fourth installment, it seems Kojima has accomplished his ultimate goal of nudging the series into being a movie with a video game tagged on. He’s never been shy about his aspirations for being a film director; he was even the first game designer to actually call himself a “director.” But clearly the man needs to learn a thing or two about editing. All I kept spotting throughout the cut scenes and dialogue were bits that were completely unnecessary. For instance, we do NOT need to hear a discussion of the military industrial complex for the fifth time; we got it the first time. And we definitely don’t need cheesy, cliche metaphors shoe-horned into every other cut scene. Subtlety seems be an unfamiliar concept to Kojima. Even Michael Moore isn’t this wordy when it comes to political issues.

What amazes me the most though — and the main reason I’m writing a whole article on this one aspect of the game — is the fact that few people out there seem to see this as a problem. Ever since I finished the game, I’ve been going back and reading previous reviews more thoroughly, looking for people that found the same problems I did. Strangely, I’ve found a lot of reviewers who thought the cut scenes were too long, but brushed that aside as being necessary to reveal the story. I don’t buy that logic. Few people relented on Assassin’s Creed’s arduous conversations, so why are they letting this slide here? They’re quick to point out issues that have been fixed from past Metal Gear Solid games — notably with fewer codec messages — but gloss over the issues that have now been compunded even further. Sure, the long codec conversations may be gone, but that’s only because they’ve put those conversations into cut scenes and threw in a few flashy multimedia presentations to go with them. It’s the equivalent of listening to a political podcast while staring at the visualizer on Windows Media Player. This is one of those glaring facts that changes the game from “recommend to everyone” to “recommend to only fans of the series.” About the only review I’ve seen that called out all this problems loudly was from Yahtzee Croshaw, a man whom I normally disagree with. Metal Gear Solid 4 most certainly isn’t the next evolution of storytelling; if anything, it’s a step backwards.

What really, really annoys me about all this though is the fact that the gameplay portions are sublime. Those parts ARE the game we were promised and more. The controls have been fine-tuned to perfection, the graphics rival any game on the market today, and your objectives are varied enough to keep you interested throughout — and that’s only scratching the surface. About the only negative thing I can say about these portions is that there’s not much of a penalty for being spotted by enemies, since shooting your way out is much easier now; but that’s only something fans of the past games would notice. And this makes the cut scenes so much more unbearable, because once one starts, you know you’ve still got a half hour to go before you can go back to doing some fun stuff.

Don’t get me wrong, the game still deserves many of the review scores it got (though the perfect 10’s might be debatable). I’m just disturbed that so few people made a point of mentioning the ridiculously long cinematics, and that may be due to Konami’s restrictions. Metal Gear Solid 4 is a great game and definitely worth playing if you have the patience to sit through the long non-interactive portions. I just hope future developers take their inspiration from the gameplay rather than the storytelling.

Thank you, Yahtzee Croshaw. I knew I could count on you to be the guy who finally played Metal Gear Solid 4, stood up, and said “What the hell?” Reviewers everywhere have been slathering praise all over the game’s redundant story and brushing aside its ridiculously long cut scenes, but not Croshaw. This has to be the most spot-on review of MGS4 I’ve seen. It is a great game to be sure — when you’re actually allowed to play it — but yes, Kojima really needs an editor.

Via The Escapist

“While we can’t provide specifics on inventory levels, the Metal Gear Solid 4 PlayStation 3 bundle is a limited-edition offering that’s experiencing high demand from Metal Gear and PlayStation enthusiasts,” the SCEA statement read. “We’re pleased with the strong consumer interest in the bundle and are working to ensure that additional shipments are provided to retailers.”

At this time, the 80GB bundle still seems to be one of the best deals for anyone interested in getting a PS3. Hopefully the people that missed out the first time will get a second chance at the bundle in the coming weeks.

Via GameRush